Absolute Vigilance
by Oberon
Summary: A SGA-StarTrek crossover. Frozen for 50 years, Rodney McKay must face new horrors that threaten to exterminate all life in the galaxy. An escape gone wrong lands McKay and his rescuers into hotter water. Or is it salvation in disguise?


* * *

Declaimer: I don't own Star Trek or Stargate Atlantis. All characters were used without permission. Non for profit.

A Stargate Atlantis and Star Trek Crossover.

* * *

_In another time_

"Do you remember who you are?"

The words, unrecognizable at first slowly made sense to him as warmth spread through his body. Suddenly, the remnants of his last memory flooded his consciousness and he panicked. Confused, he frantically jerked his arms and tried as he might, he couldn't get them to work while restrained by an iron-like grip.

"Do you remember who you are?" The voice repeated with the same tone of authority as a moment ago.

Then everything suddenly made sense. Rodney McKay opened his eyes.

"Of course I remember." McKay snapped back with mild of irritation. McKay's eyes fixated on the one he thought most likely to be the person who woke him. "Rodney McKay," there was only one word in Rodney's vocabulary to describe the person he saw. Hot. Rodney quickly amended his introduction. "That's Doctor Rodney McKay."

She nodded and suddenly the hands that held down Rodney released its grip on the scientist. "I'm Colonel Marsha Lamprey. Dr. McKay, Earth had been looking for you for a very longtime…"

* * *

Absolute Vigilance

Prologue

By Oberon

* * *

The cold stasis chamber of the Ancients always left McKay famished after a stay. He noticed something funny about the gelatinous square he just shoved into his mouth. It tasted like chicken. Same consistency and texture as he remembered chicken and charred grilled according to his pellet. McKay looked across the table to the Colonel.

"How long have I been in stasis?" He realized he should have asked this question the moment he stepped out of the stasis pod.

Lamprey met McKay's eyes and with no fanfare, she broke the news to him with the subtlety of a sludge hammer. "Fifty years," she told the scientist.

McKay dropped his spoon and it fell onto the plastic tray then bounced off the table. "What the hell took you so long to find us?" His voice silenced every other conversation in the mess hall. "I mean… come on! Fifty years?" Outrage rioted within him, outrage and fear. And doubt. He lashed out the only way he knew how. "What was Earth doing all this time? Playing grab ass with aliens?" Rodney McKay earned his PhD in belittling other people.

Without warning, the Colonel reached out and grabbed the back of McKay's head. Before McKay could voice his objection, the Colonel slammed his face into the green gelatin on his food tray. While she firmly pressed down on McKay's face, the Colonel's words came off with a razor sharp edge. "Maybe, just maybe, we had more important matters on our minds."

"Uhm… yeah, ok, you can let go now." The scientist muttered uncomfortably with bits of jell-O by his lips. "Seriously, you can let go."

Colonel Lamprey released him roughly from her grip. "You know," her voice returned to the normal flat military precision from just moments ago. "They warned me you had a high opinion of yourself. One bit of advice. Keep your mouth shut around the crew, you'll find that many things have changed since you were on ice."

"I bet," McKay muttered not too secretly. He picked himself up and wiped the jell-O stuck on his face with a nearby napkin. "Look," McKay wiped away the last smear on his face. "If you don't mind, I would like to speak with Colonel Sheppard after we're done here."

Lamprey's face turned solemn. "I'm sorry," her reply elicited an immediate sense of gloom in the scientist. "Colonel Sheppard was too far gone."

"Since when?"

Colonel Sheppard occupied one of two stasis pods on board the Deadalus' medical bay. McKay occupied the other pod. When Lamprey found them on board the crashed Deadalus, they immediately tried to revive the two survivors. They realized instantly, the moment when they started the reanimation protocol, that something went wrong with Col. Sheppard's pod. Even before McKay defrosted, Colonel Sheppard had already been teleported aboard the _Agamemnon_.

Later, they ran a diagnostic on the Colonel's pod. "Since fourteen years ago when his stasis chamber began to fail." A faulty control crystal robbed Col. Sheppard's of his life.

"Turn this ship around. We have to go back for him."

"I know he was your friend—

"No, you don't understand." McKay's objection interrupted the Colonel and unknowingly committed a taboo amongst the crew of the _Agamemnon_. Every set of eyes in the mess hall rested on him. The Canadian's insolent behavior toward a soldier and a superior officer held their interest unwaveringly. Rodney McKay ignored them and locked eyes with the Colonel. "He's not dead."

* * *

_USS Agamemnon _

CIC

The night shift ended ten minutes ago but Lieutenant Colonel Keynes still had the watch.

The ship's internal com. system suddenly came to life. "Lamprey to CIC," the Colonel's voice came through clearly.

The Lt. Colonel sat on the command chair and heard the transmission. The button for the intercom blinked when the Lt. Colonel pressed it down. "Keynes, here." He acknowledged the colonel. "Our guest giving you trouble?"

"Cut the small talk and turn us around."

"Colonel?" Keynes wondered what events transpired for the Colonel to give this sudden and strange order. Her new order jeopardized their mission to deliver Dr. McKay to Earth.

"You heard me. We're going back to the planet where we found the Deadalus."

Keynes glanced at the clock. "The next expansion is due in just under two and a half hours, if we go back now, we'll be caught in the expanding gas cloud."

"According to Dr. McKay, Colonel Sheppard is still alone. We don't leave our own behind, Lieutenant Colonel."

"Yes, ma'am." The Colonel's order endangered the mission and the entire ship, the Lt. Colonel decided he would log in his protest at the first opportunity. "You heard the Colonel, take us out of hyperspace."

* * *

_USS Agamemnon _

Mess Hall

"Gas cloud?" McKay asked curiously. What was so dangerous about a gas cloud? The scientist wondered.

"I'll explain later. Right now, you had better be right about Sheppard."

* * *

Twenty minutes later…

Rodney McKay and a full team of marines plus an engineer whose name McKay couldn't recall, materialized inside the hull of the Deadalus. The Canadian scientist had insisted that such precautions were unnecessary but the Colonel ignored his objections. As a consolation prize, McKay got new uniforms along with surprisingly comfortable shoes. He rocked back in his boots. Yup, like walking on air.

"Dr. McKay, you only have one hour." Lamprey's voice came through over the comm. The transmission broadcasted from the _Agamemnon_ which had taken up position in orbit around the planet where the _Deadalus_ crash landed fifty years ago.

It wasn't as if the _Agamemnon_ would leave without him. Obviously that would defeat the purpose for which they came to this world. "What are you going to do? Leave without me?"

"Simmons, keep an eye on him." The Colonel ordered the mountain of a man with the really big gun.

"Just don't point that thing at me." McKay grumbled. "And don't touch anything," he added a second later.

The humans made their way through the Deadalus, once it was the meanest ship in two galaxies, now only a carcass remained. They had to clear debris on the way and it almost took the team 40 minutes before they reached a set of doors marked: Computer Core. McKay snapped his fingers, pointing out the doors - in his usually way - to the marines, that they should use their muscles to get the doors open.

The engineer whose name he couldn't bother to remember gave McKay a dirty look but McKay just shrugged. "What? It's not like there's any power left."

The marines went to the door with little fuss and soon, with a loud squeak and a deep groan, the doors parted.

Simmons, shoved Rodney into the grimy hull just outside the computer core. "I thought you said a Colonel was down here," Simmons' sudden furry caught the scientist off guard and he quivered in the marine's harsh glare.

But only for a second, then McKay regained his usual arrogant composure. "Look, what's your problem? I said Sheppard was alive I never said he was in here, here," pointing to that room.

Simmons relented then warned McKay with his menacing gun. "Just remember, I'm watching you."

Rodney fidgeted under Simmons' threat and wondered why they let this psychopath into the service. "Right… I'll just be a second," he indicated to the room with nervous hand gestures. "Right then… just be a sec," when Simmons said nothing McKay hurriedly ran inside the room and out of the marine's reach.

Thankfully, the blinking lights on some of the console showed that at least some power remained. McKay chanted as he worked. "Come on Sheppard, I know you're in there." He worked until the engineer, whose name he could not remember, came up behind and tried to touch the console. "Don't touch that!" McKay shouted suddenly as the engineer froze amid action. "Don't touch anything."

"I didn't think…" An indignant grumble came from the engineer. McKay cut him off.

"Well, it goes for you too."

The whirl of machines booting up interrupted them, then after just a few seconds, everything in the room lit up like a Christmas tree. "Yes!" McKay shouted in triumph.

The nameless engineer peered down on the console. He saw the display and gasped. "That's-that's incredible."

"Yes, yes, I know I'm a genius but let's hold off the congratulatory backslap till later." Rodney sends a command into the computer core then he sat back and watched as a status bar began ticking off from 0.

After ten minutes the computer processed 85 of the program but McKay already ran low on the time he has left. Of the one hour limit imposed by the Colonel, they spend 40 minutes shifting through debris. Now, with less than 10 minutes remaining, McKay became increasingly nervous as he watched the status bar increase once every few seconds.

"Dr. McKay, what's your status?" The Colonel's voice crackled through the earpiece just when McKay didn't want an interruption.

McKay watched as the bar reached 89 percent. "Just a little longer," he radioed back and the bar reached 90 percent completion.

"You got nine minutes," Lamprey told the scientist.

"Come on, come on," McKay anxiously hurried the computer with encouragement.

95 percent

McKay looked up from the screen and snapped his fingers at the unnamed engineer. "You, go make sure those control panels over there has power."

98 percent

"We got power," the nameless one came back a moment later.

99 percent

100 percent, the screen flickered.

"Sheppard," McKay called out. "Sheppard, can you hear me?"

Then came the long silence as Rodney McKay nervously chewed his fingernails while he waited for a response.

"Rodney?" The voice synthesizer crackled like a bad connection but the voice obviously belonged to John Sheppard. "Is that you?"

"Oh, thank God." McKay visibly let out a sigh of relief. "I thought your consciousness would have degraded after all this time in the Deadalus' computer core."

"What's going on, Rodney?" John synthetic voice asked curelessly. "The last thing I remember was the crash and everyone was killed. A support beam fell on me…"

"Sheppard," McKay paused, he had no idea how to broach the subject and desperately tried to remember how Elizabeth Weir handled the task. He came up with nothing despite the number of deaths. Grodin, Kate, Elizabeth… friends with all of them but Rodney never once had the guts to show up at their funeral. He didn't know how to face their relatives and loved ones. Hell, he didn't even want to face the reality of their death. Compartmentalize, that was how Rodney McKay worked. Well, this time wouldn't be any different. They had a schedule to keep; he'll deal later. "Just hang on a little longer."

"Oh, I'm hanging."

McKay's headset crackled once more with Colonel Lamprey's voice. "Dr. McKay, we need to leave in little over five minutes. Do you have Colonel Sheppard yet?"

McKay continued to work. "I will, just as soon as I finish transferring his consciousness."

"This had better not be one of your famous science projects, Dr. McKay. So I'll ask the obvious question, is he or isn't he alive?"

"Look, it's complicated and every second I'm explaining it to you is one second less I have." He felt the seconds wasted away. The doctor's frustration building as he spoke. "Just trust me on this."

"Simmons, make sure he leaves on time."

The big man tapped his watch for McKay.

The transmission ended and with a sigh, McKay muttered his thanks. "Thank you," he said afterwards, grateful that he would hear no more from the Colonel for now. "Ok, we're just about ready, when I say: go ahead. Throw the main switch on that control."

The engineer dutifully took his place and gripped the switch on the wall.

* * *

In the emptiness between stars, just outside sensor range of the _Agamemnon_, an area of the void twisted and folded. Space contorted as if something pushed against it from elsewhere and beyond. Then suddenly the layer of reality, a membrane that is the universe, torn opens. From that penetration came invisible lines of force that spilled into vastness.

_USS Agamemnon _

CIC

Within moments, the disturbance appeared on the sensors of the Agamemnon - though its origin remained hidden. A crew member quickly alerted Colonel Lamprey of the development. "Ma'am, gravity in the solar system is spiking."

Everyone knew what this meant. "It's beginning…" the time Lamprey had dreaded approached quickly now.

Lt. Colonel Keynes acted swiftly. "We should leave. Right now, before our hyperdrive is affected." He spoke and his voice carried more authority than the Colonel. Though he didn't dare order the Colonel just yet. "Beam Dr. McKay and his team aboard," he ordered the crewman at the Asgard transporter station.

Lamprey casually halted the second crewman before he activated the transporters. "Not yet, if one of our own really is trapped down there, we have a responsibility to get him out. We don't leave our soldiers behind," she said with iron determination. "Not until the last minute."

* * *

_USS Deadalus_

Computer Core

Without looking up from his work, McKay signaled to the engineer at the wall panel. "Go ahead," like a conductor he pointed to the instrument.

Nameless throws the switch, sparks fly from the circuits then suddenly, the carcass of the Deadalus quivers and shakes. The engineer screams out just as the wall panel explodes.

More explosions occur all around McKay and throughout the corridors of the almost lifeless Deadalus. The great ship slumbered for 50 years and only awake to its death thralls.

Simmons' escaped into the room just as the outside corridor collapsed. "What have you done?" The marine's eyes impeached McKay with hurry and rage. The dead engineer laid broken by his feet.

McKay ignored the threatening stare of the marine as he frantically cleared away the rubble. He took one look at the display, uncovered from beneath the debris he cleared moments ago, and immediately went into panic overdrive. "Not good, not good. There must have been a short circuit somewhere."

McKay knew he had little time left. With his bare hands he dug into the cover plate beneath his workstation and pulled with strength that he didn't know he possessed. The steel plate came off and clattered as it fell to the floor. McKay's eyes locked onto the crystal circuit board slotted into the machine with a sigh of relief. The LED light above the board blinked green. "Thank God. It worked!"

McKay took the board from the slot and hurriedly shoved it into his backpack. McKay got ready to bug out when Simmons suddenly stood over him like a looming shadow.

The marine's malice scared the doctor. "Where's the Colonel?"

Rodney recovered from Simmons' unexpected appearance and with an efficient gesture, he pointed to the backpack. He lacked his usual mirth and arrogance when he told the marine. "You're looking at him," he anxiously tried to push past the towering man but Simmons moved to block him.

"You got my man killed because of this?"

Rodney felt the marine about to attack him but could care less, given the circumstances.

"I'll explain later, but right now, we got to get out of here." Rodney's words had no effect as the man's fist shock with barely controlled rage. A girder fell from the _Deadalus_' shattering and Rodney knew they had no more time. "Look, the power grid is going to feedback on itself, this place could blow any minute."

Simmons' sense of duty overwrote his personal hatred of the doctor. Simmons finally calmed himself, he grabbed the doctor by the arm, harder than necessary, and dragged him back into the corridor. Thankful the previous collapse left just a wide enough gap to crawl through.

The marine practically shoved Rodney inside the tight crawl space, however, the scientist didn't need instruction on what to do next. With a grunt of effort, Rodney placed one elbow forward and slowly made his way to the other side. The precious cargo on Rodney's back hampered his speed through the tight space.

The _Deadalus_ continued to rumble and debris fell in Rodney's path but he could see an opening just ahead. The other three marines called out to him from the opening, their arms reached into the crawl space with offers to pull him through. Rodney reached for the outstretched hands offered to him, his finger just inches away, then at the moment, the auxiliary capacitors for the sensors blew out. The shock wave from the explosion, although not powerful enough to destroy the _Deadalus_ outright, brought the roof down over the section of the Computer Core. The hand offered to Rodney suddenly went limp as the marine it belonged to cried out in pain.

The other marines got off lucky with only minor bruises and once they saw their comrade, the soldiers immediately went to work on clearing the rubble. Rodney pulled himself through just as the marines freed the injured from beneath a trinium plate. Another marine pulled Rodney the rest of way. Behind the scientist, Simmons' hand reached out just as another round of quacks rocked the _Deadalus_. One of the other marines reacted quickly and pulled Simmons clear moments before the tunnel collapsed.

"We're clear!" McKay screamed into his radio just as a third explosion finally brought everything down.

* * *

_USS Agamemnon _

CIC

McKay and the marines beamed out seconds before falling debris crushed everything. The Asgard transporters deposit the team directly on the CIC of the _Agamemnon_ and facing Colonel Lamprey.

The crew member that worked the Asgard transporters shook his head in solemn regret. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, there were only four life signs."

Lamprey, however, preserved her authoritative mask. "Understood," she acknowledged the death then tapped the helmsman stationed to her rightt. "Get us out of here." Then her attention settled on McKay with Simmons beside him while the others took their injured comrade to the medical bay. "I would say it was worth it but I see that Colonel Sheppard is not with you."

"Just let me explain-

"It's fortunate for you that Command wants you back home so badly." Lamprey's words gave off a cold edge. "If it was up to me, I'll have you shoved out of the nearest air lock."

Simmons grabbed McKay's backpack while the scientist futilely wrestled with the marine for possession. The marine took the backpack out of McKay's reach then pulled out the Crystal Circuit board.

"He came back for this." He tossed the board to the Colonel who stood just a short distance away.

"No, be careful! Colonel Sheppard is inside." McKay yelped but Lamprey already caught the laptop sized board.

"Explain yourself Dr. McKay," Lamprey demanded.

At that moment, something very wrong went on aboard the _Agamemnon_. The first sign came from the helmsman who sounded the alarm. "Ma'am, the hyperdrive wouldn't engage."

Without a working hyperdrive they would be unable to escape the expanding gas cloud. Lamprey knew the danger and grudgingly, she understood that McKay was the best person to handle the situation. "Go, but don't think this is over." She told Rodney with joyless respect. "If we survive this, I want to know what my man died for."

McKay looked over the sensors then sounded the second alarm.

"Oh, this is bad."

Lt. Col. Keynes spoke up and asked the forbidden question. "How can it get any worse? We're about to get swallowed by a gas cloud inside which the laws of physics don't apply."

This morsel of information immediately grabbed McKay's curiosity. "Seriously?" The scientist never heard of anything like this before, not in the Ancient database stored in Atlantis, not anywhere. For the moment, he forgot about the current problem.

"Why do you think we unfroze you in the first place?"

Lamprey nodded and offered more information. "This cloud covers 55 of the galaxy and expanding, in a few years it will reach Earth."

The Colonel's words smacked McKay like a slug hammer. He felt his panic raise within him but the part of him that thrived under pressure took control. Rodney suddenly focused. "Ok, let's take this one problem at a time." He remembered they said something about this cloud before, back in the mess hall. "Now, you said the next expansion is in two hours?"

Lamprey confirmed it.

"Well, according to my calculations the same gravity distortion that's preventing us from entering hyperspace is also going to cause the sun to go supernova in approximately," he quickly crunched the numbers in his head. "Thirty minutes," he pronounced his estimate. Already McKay's mind furiously worked to discover a solution. He did not want to die.

Lt. Col. Keynes immediately suggested to Col. Lamprey that they make their escape at best speed. "Max out the sublight engines; see if we can get far enough away to open a hyperspace window."

"Thirty minutes?" McKay cried out. "We'll never make it."

Lamprey decided to trust McKay's judgment. "Can we get more power to the shields, buy us more time?"

McKay held back his frustration. "Look, thirty minutes, two hours, it wouldn't make difference. We'll never escape the gravity field in time even if we overload the sublight engines."

Keynes picked up on the subtle body language. "And I suppose you have a better idea, doctor?" He asked sarcastically.

McKay's mind raced to a solution that still eluded him. The problem was not the gravity field, if there wasn't an imminent supernova or impending doom from cosmic gas, they could just fly out of here with the sublight. Then the answer hit him and, out of habit, McKay snapped his fingers in rapid succession.

"I got it!" He announced with glee. "We'll use _It_! You did beam _It_, onboard, right?"

"_It_?" Immediately, the Lt. Colonel's suspicion riled up because of the doctor's sudden crypticness.

Lamprey sighed. "_It_ was the reason for the _Deadalus_' secret mission 50 years ago." She admitted her knowledge of the device's existence and, by extension, her secret orders to secure the device.

McKay grinned happily as he explained the situation. "To be more precise, _It_ is an Ancient built Reality Drive powerful enough to send an entire planet to a parallel universe."

Lamprey glared at the scientist. McKay just revealed the information when Command classified the drive as top secret.

"What?" Rodney shrugged off Lamprey's accusation with dismay. "He would've found out anyway."

Lamprey realized she had no choice. "The device was to be Earth's last line of defense against our enemies. I guess Command wouldn't mind if we took it out for a test drive."

"Yes, yes," McKay nodded at the Colonel's simple explanations. "It's like the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card."

"Wait, how does this parallel reality help us?" Keynes asked the obvious question on the crew's mind.

"Here's the beauty of this plan," Rodney marveled at his own genius and couldn't hide his cocky glee. "Previous experience has taught us that relative position doesn't change when one goes from parallel-universe to another parallel-universe." He explained and took joy in the fact that he caught everyone's attention. Some years before the crash, an alternate-Rodney McKay from an alternate reality had built a Reality Drive into the alternate_-USS Deadalus_. The navigation system for the drive failed and eventually the Rodney McKay from this reality encountered the alternate-_Deadalus_ and even became trapped on board for several reality hops. "We'll pop in the drive and jump to a parallel universe, hopefully, it's one where we can open a hyperspace window," the scientist became more animated as he spoke and even used hand gestures. "Then activate the drive again to jump back once the ship is far enough away. We'll be back in time for lunch." McKay declared. He loved it when his plans came together. He rubbed his hands in anticipation, confident he would have his way. "Now then, the adjustments to the power grid are relatively simple. I'll just need computer access."

"Give him what he needs." Lamprey told his Lt. Colonel. Then to McKay, she promised to bring him the device. "I'll bring you the device personally."

* * *

_USS Agamemnon _

Core Room

Lamprey carried the Ancient Reality Drive into the Agamemnon's core room. From here, McKay can patch in the drive and monitor its output.

"Ah, just in time." McKay received the drive - a greenish cylinder about twice the height of a Zed PM. "I'm done with the adjustments, now all we need to do is plug-in the Reality Drive and we're home free."

"You're certain we'll be better-off in this other universe than we are here?"

McKay paused and met the Colonel's gaze. "Well, I hate to speculate…"

"Doctor, yes or no?" Lamprey forced the doctor. She demanded a straight and simple answer.

McKay had none to give. "It's complicated. The Ancients hardwired the destination directly into the drive. Now I'm guessing they must have been there before and if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us." He tried to cover up the shortcomings of his plan with his mirth, his smile that usually aspired confidence from the fellow members of the Atlantis Expedition. McKay dismissed the Colonel's concerns, confident the odds of disaster were remote. In other words, they flew blindly into the dark.

"So that's a 'no'." Lamprey drew her own conclusion, however. She thought back to a particularly memorable line from Rodney McKay's historical records. The exact quote escaped her but the jest of the words she recalled clearly. "Doctor, your biography had it wrong. You're much more arrogant in person."

"Really? Somebody wrote a book about me?"

Lamprey sighed. An egomaniac indeed. "Focus, doctor, focus."

"If someone gave you a bad impression of me, I have a right know." McKay whined but the look on Lamprey's face stopped him. McKay made a mental note: never piss off Marsha Lamprey. Her face scared him, the same psychopathic eyes that Simmons had when they were down on the planet. "Focus, right. As I was saying, anything is better than staying here. I don't see how things could possibly get any worse."

"It seems I have no choice but to place my faith in you, doctor. Don't let me down." She warned him.

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing. Technically, I been doing this since before you were born."

McKay plugs in the drive, he knew exactly what to do with the device from his study of it fifty years ago. The device lit up from a source inside casing, the lights very much resembled a Zed PM when plugged into Atlantis.

"And we're online." He quickly went to check on the status of the ship. If something went wrong, the early symptoms would show up as a fluxuation in power consumption. "The drive is operating within normal parameters and the power grid is holding study." He gave his thumbs up to the Colonel. "Ok, we're ready to go."

Lamprey nodded and without any fanfare she spoke into the intercom found on the wall. "This is Colonel Lamprey. All personnel, secure your stations. We'll begin shifting momentarily."

* * *

_USS Agamemnon _

CIC

The doors parted automatically for Colonel Lamprey as she entered the CIC of the _Agamemnon_. The marines on watch duty saluted her as she walked by their posts. Lamprey noticed a definite presence of tension in their eyes - eyes that belonged to a pair of young men on their first tour of duty. She wanted to reassure them that they would live to see tomorrow but she couldn't make that promise as their fates, including all the souls aboard _Agamemnon_, rested in the hands of Rodney McKay. Personally, the Colonel would feel a lot better if this task fell on the hands of a member of the _Agamemnon_'s crew. With a survey of the CIC, she noticed a raise in the same sense of uncertainty as the time approached for the ship and her crew to make the jump to another universe.

Lt. Colonel Keynes reported the status of the crew and the ship. "All stations are reporting condition green."

There, at the center of the CIC, as a tradition that dated back to the first 303 line of ships, a large uncomfortable seat dominated the architectural design of the CIC. Lamprey sat with her heavy burden and wished, not for the first time, their salivation would come from a member of the crew. As qualified as McKay was, the man, however, did not ease her doubts. She trusted her crew, she did not trust Rodney McKay.

"Dr. McKay, you have a go."

Over the intercom, McKay counted down. "And jumping in: Three, Two, One, Jump!"

* * *

In a flash of light the _Agamemnon_ disappeared from the universe. In a faraway place, the _Agamemnon_ floated in an infinite sea of multicolor gases. When Colonel Lamprey looked out the transparent window in the CIC, she realized they were not where they should be; not where they wanted to be - for this was the realm of horror. As the Agamemnon drifted along the expanse of purple and crimson, a single word echoed across the cold cosmos. The voice of woman scorn called out to the stars.

"MCKAY!"

"It's not my fault!"

* * *

To be continued...

This was released without a beta so please forgive any grammar or other errors. And on that note, I'm also looking for beta for this story. If you're good at spotting grammar problems leave a post at my ffnet forum.

Author's notes: When I wanted to continue "Tales from a galaxy far away" I ran into the problem with giving something for people to do. Basically the plot didn't go anywhere but hopefully I have setup a recipe for success with this latest attempt. This is an evolution of "Tales" but the concept has changed so much over the last year that it wouldn't be recognizable. There's really not much of "Tales" left in this but hopefully this first chapter has enough momentum to go forward.

If you're interested for a beta position, please post in my forum under the AV Beta thread.

www **dot** fanfiction **dot** net/forum/myforums/Oberon/111712/

* * *


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